(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an address server that manages an address book used by data transmission apparatuses for transmitting data on a data transmission/reception system, and an address book transmission program used by the address server.
(2) Related Art
Recently, a data transmission technique has been used in a data transmission/reception system composed of a plurality of data transmission apparatuses that are connected for transmitting/receiving data to/from one another. Each of the data transmission apparatuses is for example an MFP (Multi-Function Peripheral) having transmission functions such as a FAX function, an electronic mail transmission function, an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) function, and an SMB (Server Message Block) function. According to this technique, an address server centrally manages an address book in which lists of recipients' addresses are registered beforehand such that any of the data transmission apparatuses included in the data transmission/reception system can refer to the recipients' addresses. The data transmission apparatuses perform data transmission using the address book by downloading it from the address server. Such a technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-108479, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-244308, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-33733, and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-20049, for example.
By the way, in order to further improve the convenience of the above data transmission/reception system, the applicant of the present invention suggests a mechanism in which it is possible to refer to receiving addresses respectively registered by users themselves, using the address book. According to this mechanism, each of the users registers a receiving address as an address for receiving data destined to the user in the address server, separately from the address book in which the recipients' addresses are registered. By correlating the address book with the receiving address, it is possible to refer to the receiving address using the address book. When a sender of data logs into the address server, a data transmission apparatus firstly acquires the address book from the address server. When the sender transmits the data to a recipient who has registered his receiving address in the address server for receiving data destined to the recipient, the data transmission apparatus accesses the address server to acquire the latest receiving address of the recipient. The above mechanism is useful in that the recipient can have the sender transmit data to the recipient's preferred and latest receiving address, and the sender does not need to update his address book even when the receiving address of the recipient has been changed.
However, when both conventional and new data transmission apparatuses are connected in the data transmission/reception system, some of the conventional data transmission apparatuses do not support the above new mechanism in which the address book and a receiving address are related with each other. As a result, such conventional data transmission apparatuses cannot appropriately perform data transmission by referring to the receiving address.
Also, there is a technique in which an image such as a face photograph is stored in correspondence with a recipient's name in the address book, and the image is displayed together with the corresponding recipient's name. When the address book includes recipients having the same name, it is possible for a sender to correctly designate an intended recipient by checking a face photograph of the intended recipient.
However, when both conventional and new data transmission apparatuses are connected in the data transmission/reception system, there is a case where the address book includes an image compressed in a new image compression format (for example, JPEG-2000 format). In such a case, some of the conventional data transmission apparatuses do not support this new image compression format, and as a result cannot display the image in the new image compression format included in the address book.
As described above, a problem might occur that when an address book stored in the address server is inappropriate to a use mode in which a data transmission apparatus uses the address book due to the capability of the data transmission apparatus, the data transmission apparatus cannot not properly use the address book, and as a result, cannot determine a recipient's address.
Furthermore, recent data transmission apparatuses support a plurality of types of languages, and display descriptions on its screen in a language that has been determined for each of the data transmission apparatuses (hereinafter referred to as a “determined language”).
However, there is a case that a description language of an address book stored in the address server is different from a determined language of a data transmission apparatus. In such a case, even when this data transmission apparatus acquires the address book and displays the acquired address book, a user of the data transmission apparatus might not be able to understand items included in the displayed address book such as a recipient's name.
As described above, a problem also might occur that when an address book stored in the address server is inappropriate to a use mode in which a data transmission apparatus uses the address book due to the configuration of the data transmission apparatus, the data transmission apparatus cannot not appropriately use the address book, and as a result, cannot determine a recipient's address.
The present invention is made in view of the above problems. In a system in which, a data transmission apparatus receives an address book stored in an address server and uses the received address book, the present invention aims to make it possible for the data transmission apparatus to determine a recipient's address, even when the address book stored in the address server is inappropriate to a use mode in which the data transmission apparatus uses the address book due to a problem of the capability or the configuration of the data transmission apparatus.